


glimpse of silver.

by SoVeryAverageMe



Series: SASO 2017 Fills [4]
Category: Free!, Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Magic, Fae!Nitori, Fluff, Gen, Possibly a line or two implied Sugawara Koushi/Daichi Sawamura, Small Towns, Witch!Sugawara Koushi, mention of scrapes and bruises, mentions of shenanigans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-13
Updated: 2018-01-13
Packaged: 2019-03-04 10:22:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 878
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13362615
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoVeryAverageMe/pseuds/SoVeryAverageMe
Summary: Sugawara creates herbal remedies and gives magical insight to the villagers of one of the many forgotten towns in the kingdom. The town might not get famous knights or questing heroes, but one day Sugawara finds a small silver-haired Fae boy lost in the forest.It's the start of a beautiful friendship.





	glimpse of silver.

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Yrindor](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yrindor/gifts).



> Written for [this prompt](https://sportsanime.dreamwidth.org/21522.html?thread=10089234#cmt10089234) for SASO 2017. 
> 
> Also, I think that this fic puts me past 50,000 published words on AO3, so yay!!

Sugawara Koushi lived at the edge of the forest. His small cottage sat on the very end of the dirt road that stopped where the trees got too thick.

The closest village, where he went to sell his herbal medicines in the market, was a half an hour walk away, while the closest city was nearly half a day’s ride away. Throughout the years, Sugawara had built a reputation of kindness to the local townspeople, with his fairly priced medicines and magical insight.

The small village didn't attract much attention from the heroic knights or questing adventurers that wandered through the kingdom in search of power, money, or love. Instead, the inconspicuous village was left to go about its peaceful existence.

That isn’t to say that life in the village was _boring_. Sugawara would argue that the village was actually the exact opposite of that. The excitable and rowdy kids of the village were always getting into trouble, whether it be attracting every animal familiar in the area or the mermaid incident that was _Not To Be Spoken About Under Any Circumstance_. From unicorns to werewolves, life in the small, unknown village was always keeping Sugawara on his toes.

In some ways, finding the small, gray-haired child wandering through the forest while collecting herbs, was just an everyday circumstance in his mundane village life. He had small pointed-ears that distinguished him as some type of Fae. His shoulders were hunched and there was a lost, confused look in his eyes. 

“Hello,” Sugawara gently called out, “Are you lost?” The boy startled, froze in place, and looked up at him, his eyes becoming big round saucers. “Hello?” Sugawara called out again, his voice softer at seeing the boy’s reaction. This seemed to break the boy out of his frozen pose and fear flashed through his eyes as he realized that he was being talked to. He backed away from Sugawara with his hands up in a defensive gesture before quickly turning on his heel and running desperately deeper into the forest.

Sugawara immediately dropped his basket of collected herbs and took off after the boy.

Daichi would have his head for not being more careful. Appearances could be deceiving, and a plethora of dangerous creatures called these woods home, but Sugawara didn’t care. He felt an overwhelming need to protect the small, terrified boy who had walked into his neck of the woods. He couldn’t shake the image of his fear stricken face, and if he was the one that was the cause of this poor boy’s fear, he needed to be the one to alleviate it.

It was easy to track the boy through the woods – he had left a path of broken twigs and overturned leaves. Sugawara found the boy breathing heavy on his hands and knees. A small root had curled itself around the boy’s ankle, tripping him. He walked over to the boy, trying to keep his posture as unaggressive as possible.

“Here, you should sit up. It’ll help you breathe better.” The boy looked at him with suspicion, but carefully flipped over onto his backside. Sugawara was relieved to see that the scrapes seemed to mostly be superficial.

Sugawara crouched to make himself smaller, hoping that his sincerity was showing on his face. “My name is Sugawara Koushi,” he said in his softest voice. The boy still looked scared of him, but the color had returned to his face now that he could get air into his lungs. “You can call me Suga, if you'd like. It’s what all of my friends call me.”

The boy looked down at his legs and mumbled something. Sugawara tilted his head in confusion, and the boy looked up, repeating what he said, “I’m Nitori Aiichiro.” The corners of his lips quirk up in a shy smile, “You can call me Ai.”

“It’s nice to meet you Ai,” Sugawara smiled, the big one that Daichi always said left people breathless, “I live by the edge of the woods, and if you want I could put some healing salve on those scraps. Then you could be on your way again.”

Ai was still looking at him with a tinge of wariness, but his shoulders had relaxed. There was tentative trust reflected in his eyes, “I lost my friends.”

“I have some friends that can help you find them. I’m sure they’re worried about you.” Suga touched the root around Ai’s ankle, and whispered to it a lullaby that was popular amongst the wood nymphs. The root uncurled from his ankle, nuzzled Suga’s hand, and retreated back into the dirt.

The boy watched enraptured and smiled for real this time, his hand reaching out for Sugawara’s. He helped Ai to his feet, and they started to make the slow journey back to his small cottage.

He made small talk with Ai, and smiled when his new friend shared stories of his life and his lost friends.

Others may see his small town has an unnecessary detour on their epic travels or awe-inspiring quests, but Sugawara knows that the town holds its own magic.

Has Ai rambles on about the selkie versus siren beach shenanigans that his friends did last summer, Suga knows that he wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading. Find me on tumblr [here!](http://soveryaverageme.tumblr.com/)


End file.
